Got Flooding? Agroforestry can help.

We are finally nearing the end of a great deluge! Rivers are flooding, roads are closed, and many farms are underwater. Weather patterns here is the PNW are changing. We are beginning to experience wetter winters with rainfall events of increasing intensity. Records are showing a greater percentage of total annual precipitation is occurring during peak events.

For farmers, these new precipitation patterns are causing increased field and bank erosion along rivers and streams, worsening flooding, and damage to crops and infrastructure.

Agroforestry systems can help farmers of any size adapt to these new weather patterns, lessening the negative impacts that they have across the landscape. Integrating more trees into the farming landscape provides cover that can intercept rainfall, increases the amount of rain that filters into soils, and reduces the quantity, speed, and peak flow of runoff.

Alley cropping, silvopasture, and forest farming systems can help reduce soil erosion and flooding throughout a watershed, while maintaining, and at times increasing, crop production. These practices also offer the benefit of diversifying and increasing economic productivity.

By incorporating agroforestry practices, farmers can help adapt their lands and watersheds in which they live to the increased rain intensity associated with our changing climate.

For more information or question on agroforestry practices please contact Carrie Brausieck at cbrausieck@snohomishcd.org or 425-377-7014.

Resource: USDA Working Trees “How can agroforestry help landowners adapt to increased rain intensity?”